Africa: Ban ivory trade
24/04/2007 21:30 - (SA)

Paris - African states called on Tuesday for a 20-year ban on trade in ivory to protect the continent's elephants from poachers and possible extinction in the wild.

Kenya and Mali, which spearheaded the moratorium along with Togo and Ghana, are seeking to have the measure adopted at the June meeting of the 169-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), their representatives said at a meeting in Paris.

A delegation representing about 20 African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger, will tour Europe this week to secure backing from the European Union for the ban, they said.

"The elephants are dramatically becoming depleted," said Patrick Omondi, head of species conservation and management at the Kenya Wildlife Service.

'Moratorium necessary'

"A 20-year moratorium is necessary to allow the population to recover, and to refine the mechanisms of law enforcement."

The African representatives lashed out at partial bans and quotas that have been implemented in the past.

"Every time Cites authorises the sale of limited quantities of ivory, we witness an increase in poaching and illegal trade," said Bourama Niagate, head of the delegation and of nature conservation in Mali.

"We are confronted with men who are very organized and better armed than our standing armies, and at the same time we are in charge of protecting hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of parks and preserves without even basic communication tools," he said.

According to a report submitted by the African nations to Cites, the continent's elephant population has plummeted approximately ten fold from up to five million in the 1940s to 400 000 to 600 000 today.

Illegal poaching??? Know one is mentioning the machine gunning in Uganda and other civil war torn African countries...Slaughter would be a better word...


Mike

Kenya has lead the charge for many years at CITES, often with India....if you read between the lines Norway supports Kenya's ivory ban (well used to at least) and coincidentally, Kenya supports Norway's proposal for 'scientific whaling' - odd is it not?

In 1999 Kenya reported that when CITES gave the southern nations (SA, Zim, Nam, Bots) permission to sell off specific tonnages of stockpile ivory, Kenya's poaching increased. Further research revealed that Kenya had recently cut their anti-poaching budget by half....

Yes, the politcs of wildlife dealing

For those of you in the know, does this have any realistic possibility of passing and being adopted?

With regards to the comment on ivory smuggling increasing soon after the authorised sale of ivory stockpiles I would be willing to wager a substantial amount that the smuggled ivory comes from Gov stockpiles of other African states. The most recent arrests were of huge quantities of Zambian, TZ and Kenyan ivory! Such large quantities (several tonnes) can't be recent ivory! Afterall, with corrupt senior officials and lax control measures, smuggling out a few tonnes form massive stockpiles in Gov warehouses is not rocket science!